PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Do Not Support External Storage for Games

As we get closer and closer to their November launch dates, the consoles being released by Microsoft and Sony are looking more and more similar. Not that it’ll stop fans from comparing the two.

News came out over the weekend that neither console will support external storage, at least at launch.

The news came from Sony rather succinctly. Sony Computer Entertainment’s President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, responded to an inquiry from a fan asking, “Hello Mr Yoshida, can we use external hard drive to install games without having it on the main internal hard drive?” Yoshida responded with a simple “no.”

On the Microsoft side, Director of Programming Major Nelson was a bit more verbose. During his PAX Special podcast, he said that “the future plan is definitely to support external storage much like we do on the Xbox 360. My understanding is that the feature will not be there at launch because the team is working on some other things, but it definitely is on the list. I don’t know when it will come through.”

Both systems come with a 500GB internal hard drive at launch, along with USB 3.0 ports for accessories and external devices. The PlayStation 4’s drive will supposedly be upgradable, according to word from Sony during E3.

We’re left with a number of questions from both parties. To Sony: Is the ability to use external storage coming, or is it not planned at all currently? Is the ability to swap hard drives out for bigger ones still in place, then? Does Yoshida’s answer suggest that external storage works, but not for game installs? To Microsoft: How soon can we expect to be allowed to use external storage? Will we be able to use our own storage options like we can with the 360?

We’ll learn more as the releases get closer and, of course, once we get our hands on the systems themselves.